David Anderson

Captain David Edward Anderson was a human war hero of the Systems Alliance and the original commanding officer of the frigate SSV Normandy. One of the Alliance's most decorated special forces operatives and the first to graduate from its N7 program, Anderson served with honor in the First Contact War and became the mentor of Commander Shepard. When the Reapers fell upon Earth, he chose to remain and lead its resistance, and he was at Shepard's side in the war's last hours.

An Alliance war hero#

David Anderson was born on June 8, 2137, in London on Earth, the youngest child of a nurse and a flight mechanic. He became one of the Alliance's most promising soldiers and the first to graduate from the N7 Special Forces program at Arcturus Station, congratulated on his achievement by the admiral Jon Grissom. He served with distinction in the First Contact War and built an excellent reputation across his career, commanding the cruiser SSV Tokyo and earning the respect of those who served under him.

In 2165, as a lieutenant, Anderson was drawn into a sensitive investigation that brought him into contact with the turian Spectre Saren Arterius. Assigned to work together on the Council's orders, ostensibly so Anderson could be assessed as a Spectre candidate, the two disliked each other from the start; Saren held humanity in contempt, and Anderson resented his brutal methods. When Saren broke from their plan and caused the deaths of many innocents, he shifted the blame onto Anderson, claiming the lieutenant had alerted the enemy. The accusation was enough to keep Anderson out of the Spectres, and the failed mission left the two men permanent enemies.

Captain of the Normandy#

Because of his reputation and the sensitive nature of the prototype frigate's shakedown run, the Alliance gave Anderson command of the Normandy and allowed him to hand-pick his crew. He chose Commander Shepard as his executive officer and became, in effect, the Commander's mentor. The Normandy's first mission, the covert retrieval of a Prothean beacon from Eden Prime, went badly: the colony was attacked by the geth, the Spectre Nihlus Kryik was killed, and Anderson learned that the assault had been led by his old enemy Saren.

Convinced that Saren intended to exterminate humanity, Anderson was determined to stop him, but his history with Saren complicated the hearing before the Council. Advised to step aside so the Alliance would not seem driven by an old grudge, Anderson let Shepard pursue the investigation, supplying the Commander with leads and with the history needed to build the case. When Shepard was made a Spectre, Anderson stepped down as captain of the Normandy and handed command to his protege. Later, when the Council and the ambassador moved to ground the Normandy rather than let Shepard chase Saren to Ilos, Anderson took matters into his own hands, breaking the ship free of the Citadel's lockdown at great personal risk so the Commander could reach Saren in time.

A reluctant statesman#

In the years after the Battle of the Citadel, Anderson's path depended on the choices made in its aftermath: he was either elevated to serve as humanity's representative on the Council or promoted to admiral and made an advisor in Citadel politics. Neither role suited him. He found the slow pace and maneuvering of politics deeply frustrating and yearned for the more decisive years of his soldiering. When word reached him that Shepard had been rebuilt and was operating from a new Normandy under the banner of Cerberus, Anderson sought the Commander out. He remained supportive against the odds, though he distrusted Cerberus and, in some accounts, had quietly placed one of Shepard's former comrades on the colony of Horizon to investigate whether Cerberus was behind the missing human colonists.

The Reaper War and Earth#

David Anderson returned to the center of events in 2186. At the outbreak of the Reaper invasion he brought Shepard, then detained on Earth, before the Defense Committee. When the Reapers struck, the two were left among the only survivors and fought their way to the refitted Normandy SR-2. At the ship Anderson chose to stay behind, recognizing that humanity could not fight the Reapers alone; he urged Shepard to convince the Council to send help, reinstated his protege into the Alliance, and remained on Earth to lead the survivors.

While leading the resistance, Anderson kept in contact with Shepard through quantum communicators, sharing intelligence and offering counsel and the occasional personal word. He warned the Commander not to underestimate the Cerberus assassin Kai Leng, and as the fight ground on amid the ruins of the city of his birth, he confided that he feared London would be the place of his death even as he vowed that everyone would follow Shepard against any odds.

The final hours#

When Shepard returned to Earth with the assembled fleets, Anderson and the remnant of the resistance joined the Commander in an assault on the Reaper conduit that gave access to the Citadel. In the chaos, only Anderson and Shepard reached the station. Separated on arrival, they reunited at Citadel Control, where they confronted the Illusive Man. The Cerberus leader, by then indoctrinated, used his Reaper enhancements to immobilize them both; Anderson, seeing at once that the man was being controlled, refused his arguments. The Illusive Man forced Shepard to shoot Anderson. If Shepard overcame the Illusive Man, the Commander slumped beside the dying admiral, who told Shepard what an honor it had been to fight beside his greatest protege before he died of his wound. Anderson's name was afterward added to the memorial wall aboard the Normandy.